Especially when it’s so easy to hate the trite Cinderella tale at the center of Michael Elliot’s script for this rom-com from Sanaa Hamri (The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2). As glossy as you might expect (Hamri cut her teeth directing music videos), the film double-dribbles with its familiar story of the ugly duckling who wins the swan — even if it’s usually the man who plays the overweight loser.

It’s sad to see Latifah’s talent squandered on such clichés. Even worse is Paula Patton’s role as Wright’s golddigging godsister, who dreams of being an NBA trophy wife. Bench this fairy tale.

WOMEN WITH SWORDS: KING HU AND THE ART OF WUXIA | March 12, 2013 Decades before women took center stage in the one-two punch of Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill , King Hu (1932-1997; the subject of a retrospective at the HFA) put swords in the hands of a soaring heroine in Come Drink with Me.

REVIEW: EMPEROR | March 12, 2013 Yes, Tommy Lee Jones plays the "supreme commander" of the US forces in this historical drama from Peter Webber ( Girl with a Pearl Earring ) that takes place after the Japanese surrender in World War II, and the Oscar winner puts in another towering performance.

REVIEW: 21 AND OVER | March 05, 2013 As one of the Asian stereotypes in this hit-or-(mostly)-miss comedy from writer/directors Jon Lucas and Scott Moore says, "Fuck kids these days. Every one of you is drunk, stupid, and fat."

REVIEW: THE LAST EXORCISM PART II | March 06, 2013 Now that the shaky-cam nonsense has been left behind, what remains are textureless, overlit, sub-TV-quality visuals that only accentuate the fact that our protagonist, Nell Sweetzer (Ashley Bell), is at least a decade older than the 17-year-old exorcised sect-escapee that she's playing.

REVIEW: JACK THE GIANT SLAYER | March 06, 2013 Stop me if you've heard this one before: a farm boy dreams of adventure, finds it, and falls in love with a princess along the way. (For everyone's sake, let's just hope she's not his sister.)